Building information modeling (BIM) can refer to the generation and/or management of data associated with a building (e.g., data associated with the components, equipment, and/or properties of the building). For example, BIM data can include architectural, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, sanitary, fire, and/or geometrical information associated with a building.
The leading international standard for describing the data contained within a building information model is called the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC), which is an open standard designed and maintained by the BuildingSmartAlliance. This is a very comprehensive standard that provides for the description of data related to many sub-domains related to the design, build, construction, and/or operation of a built environment (e.g., building).
The amount of BIM data associated with a building, and codified or expressed in the IFC standard, tends to be proportional to the size of the building, and can grow exponentially based on the number of specific sub-domains that are identified and documented in the BIM, including, for example, plumbing, electrical, or HVAC systems. Therefore, even a small building with very complete information for many different systems within the building may have a very large amount of BIM data associated therewith. Accordingly, a BIM model of any building may include a large amount of BIM data, which can increase the amount of time and/or computing resources needed to generate the BIM model of the building, and thus have a negative impact on the end-user, particularly when the user has to respond very quickly to some real-time change in the status of the building or the equipment therein.
In some instances, a user may not desire (e.g., need and/or want) to generate, view, and/or navigate the whole (e.g., entire) model of a building (e.g., the user may not desire all of the BIM data associated with the building). Rather, the user may desire only a portion (e.g., not all of) of the model of the building and/or only a portion of the BIM data associated with the building. For example, the user may desire only the BIM data that is relevant to what the user is doing (e.g., only the BIM data that is relevant to the user's work and/or the particular task that the user is presently trying to perform). That is, the user may require that no BIM data that is not immediately relevant to what the user is doing is presented, and/or waste the time and/or computing resources needed to generate the whole BIM model when only a portion is needed to complete the task at hand.